The present invention relates to a device for holding a ladder securely in place against a building structure to facilitate the safe use thereof. After the initial location and placement of a ladder against a house or other building structure, there is always the danger that the upper end thereof may slide to one side or the other during its use. This risk is substantially increased when a workman is standing on one of the upper rungs of the ladder because the weight of the workman is concentrated at the top of the ladder and is substantially displaced from the bottom end of the ladder providing the sole support therefor. It is therefore not surprising that statistics published by the National Roofing Contractors Association reveal that injuries resulting from falls represent one of the two most frequent time-loss accidents which plague roofing workmen, most such falls resulting from inadequate or non-existent tie-off of ladders used by workmen to gain access to the roof of a building structure.
A number of devices designed to engage a ladder and hold it securely in place against a building during its use have heretofore been proposed. Such devices have generally utilized a variety of means for engaging the building to prevent inadvertent or accidental movement of the ladder from its initial resting place against the building, some of these prior art devices including pointed elements disposed to slightly penetrate the roof of the building while other devices provide members which merely frictionally engage the roof of the building. Typical of these types of ladder supports are those shown in J. J. Gilmour, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,815,160, W. Enssle, U.S. Pat. No. 1,522,292, and E. W. Wendel, U.S. Pat. No. 1,467,597. While each of these devices provides some degree of stability to the ladder to which they are attached, such devices may nevertheless be disengaged from the building with relatively little force, thereby providing only minimal protection against accidental sliding of the ladder with respect to the structure against which it is supported. Still other devices provide means for engaging the ladder and holding it securely to the roof guttering normally provided on houses and other small building structures, an example of this type of device being found in Jarboe, U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,202. Finally, as shown in Phelan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,991, other devices utilize relatively complex locking assemblies which must be bolted both to the ladder itself and to the building structure against which it is to rest.
In contrast, the present invention provides a safety bracket for securing a ladder in place against a building structure which may be relatively quickly and easily attached in place without requiring complicated locking assemblies or engagement of guttering and which provides significantly greater stability against accidental disengagement of the ladder from the building than conventional devices which utilize frictional members or pointed elements to engage the roof of the building.